Figure 4.

The effects of vascular-specific microRNA-1 (miR-1) on lung angiogenesis. (A) miR-1, scrambled control (scr-ctrl), or vehicle were delivered intranasally to vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) transgenic (VEGF TG) or wild-type (WT) mice 1 day after inducing the transgene. Lungs were harvested after 10 days. Tracheas were stained with anti-CD31 antibody. (Left) Representative images. (Right) Quantification of CD31-positive area (vascular density) expressed as a percentage of the whole area examined (n ≥ 8 from four experiments; *P < 0.00001). (B) Effect of vascular-specific miR-1 overexpression on tracheal vascular density. WT and VEGF TG mice received intranasal V-miR-1 or V-scr and VEGF transgene was induced by adding doxycycline to the drinking water. Tracheal vascular density was measured as described in A. (Left) Representative images. (Right) Results of quantification (n ≥ 6 from three experiments; *P = 0.00970). Error bars represent SEM. V-miR-1 = vascular-specific miR-1; V-scr = vascular-specific scrambled control.